Stories of Self Defense

Pentagon to Destroy $1 Billion of Ammunition

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The details on this are a little sketchy at the moment, but I’m going to say that destroying $1 billion of munitions seems, oh, maybe just a tad bit wasteful to me.

According to a USA Today report, the Pentagon is set to do just that. Over $1 billion of munitions will be destroyed, despite the fact that much of the ammo may still be usable by troops.

It’s impossible to know what portion of the arsenal slated for destruction — valued at $1.2 billion by the Pentagon — remains viable because the Defense Department’s inventory systems can’t share data effectively, according to a Government Accountability Office report obtained by USA TODAY.

The result: potential waste of unknown value.

“There is a huge opportunity to save millions, if not billions of dollars if the (Pentagon) can make some common-sense improvements to how it manages ammunition,” said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., and chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “Despite years of effort, the Army, Navy and Air Force still don’t have an efficient process for doing something as basic as sharing excess bullets. This Government Accountability Office (GAO) report clearly shows that our military’s antiquated systems lead to millions of dollars in wasteful ammunition purchases.”

The Army and Pentagon, in a statement, acknowledged “the need to automate the process” and will make it a priority in future budgets. In all, the Pentagon manages a stockpile of conventional ammunition worth $70 billion.

Maybe a quick and easy alternative would be to auction off the munitions in question to law abiding Americans?